Ebola In America: One Hospital Just Treated Three Ebola Patients -- And Already Cured Two Of Them

Dan Diamond
, ContributorI write sharp takes on the health, policy and wonk news of the day.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Ebola is now in America. The CDC on Tuesday confirmed that a Texas hospital is treating the first case of Ebola ever diagnosed in the United States.

But Ebola actually arrived on U.S. soil almost two months ago. That was when Emory Healthcare leaders decided — in a much-scrutinized move — to fly in a pair of missionaries who'd gotten ill treating Ebola patients in Africa.

"We made the final decision to go forward on Tuesday, July 29," Emory's CEO John Fox told me. "I remember that night clear as a bell."

I spoke with Fox about a week ago, as part of a broader interview we were doing for the Advisory Board Daily Briefing. (You can see an excerpt here.) Fox walked through Emory's choice to accept Ebola patients, and how other hospitals could hypothetically respond if Ebola did make it to America — a scenario that's now quite practical.

Talking to Fox reminded me of something that's been missed in the Ebola news coverage: Several U.S. hospitals already have experience treating Ebola.

They know how to see it. They know how to treat it. And they know how to beat it.

Emory's experience with Ebola has been incredibly high-pressure and high-profile. When missionary Kent Brantly arrived in Atlanta on August 2, a news helicopter followed his ambulance from the airport. Dozens of media trucks were parked outside of Emory's receiving bay.

Some pundits at the time suggested Emory's decision to treat Brantly was controversial. That bringing Ebola to America would backfire. But within the hospital, staff were confident they could help and even eager for the challenge.

In a column in the Washington Post, Emory's chief nurse Susan Grant pointed out that Emory's special isolation unit — one of only five such units in the United States — was specifically created for treating patients with highly infectious diseases like Ebola. The unit is physically separate from other patient areas and, as a local TV station's video shows, the unit features:

A negative-pressure air-handling system, designed to circulate the air every three minutes and prevent it from getting out;

Special gear, including oversized shells (they look like bicycle helmets) to shield health care workers from patients' droplets; and

Uniquely designed features intended to reduce physical contact, like a light-activated, hands-free sink.

Emory's staff also had trained years for the moment, Grant notes. That's one reason why when Emory issued a call for volunteers — staff were allowed to say no to treating Brantly, and fellow missionary Nancy Writebol (who arrived several days later) — Emory ended up with more volunteers than the hospital needed. "At least two nurses canceled vacations to be a part of this team," Grant writes.

Before they arrived at Emory, Brantly and Writebol had begun in Africa to receive ZMapp, an experimental serum designed from the antibodies of people who had survived Ebola, and that course of treatment continued in the United States. Emory staff also worked to replace the fluids that Brantly and Writebol were losing because of Ebola's symptoms (which include vomiting and diarrhea), and administered a cocktail of antibiotics.

The treatment worked. Both Brantly and Writebol were released within three weeks of arriving at Emory.

A third Ebola patient, an American doctor who also contracted the disease, arrived at Emory on September 9. As of October 1, there's been no update in his condition.